Tag Archives: van locks

Protecting your vehicle can be tricky sometimes. There’s been a lot done to reduce car crime over the last few decades, such as radio systems no longer being a viable target for smash and grab thieves, and more advanced immobilisers, but unfortunately there are always new types of ambitious crime cropping up too. If you’re street smart with your vehicle there are lots of ways to protect it, but where is it at most risk?

Most vehicle crimes occur as crimes of opportunity. This means that thieves look out for any way of stealing from you, and if you happen to set up a good opportunity for them, they won’t hesitate to take it. For minor theft, such as possessions taken from inside the vehicle, or some part of the vehicles stolen (e.g. a catalytic converter) the most dangerous places are crowded car parks in inner cities. But for incidents of a more serious nature the statistics tell a very different story.

It might be a surprise to you that in terms of the whole vehicle being driven away, the most common place of theft is your home. Burglars will hunt out keys inside the house and then make a dash for the car, flying off before anyone can give chase. To prevent this you need to keep keys well away from where they might be reached from the outside, and not somewhere obvious like a drawer near the doorway either. Cars can also be fitted with immobilisers to make it even more difficult to hotwire as long as the keys are hidden.

Delivery workers should already be familiar with the perils of leaving your keys in the vehicle. This is the second most likely way in which cars are stolen, and the most likely places for it to occur are cash machines or other roadside conveniences such as shops. You can’t leave the engine running or the keys in even for a moment.

So that’s it really – the basic measures and places where the crimes occur are practically the same as they’ve always been. You just have to stay alert.

Theft from a vehicle or of a vehicle is still a very common crime. You can work out how likely you are to be a victim from the kinds of areas you leave your vehicle in, or what kind of vehicle you drive, but the bottom line is that no one is safe from this kind of attack, and everyone needs to be vigilant to prevent it. Other than changing your habits, there are plenty of security tools out there for people that want to protect their car or work vehicle, and they’re generally fairly cheap too.

Something that’s come to light recently is that thieves can counter alarms in seconds. This is made much easier for them if they know what alarm they’re tackling before they go to work, so don’t have stickers on your window showing them: everyone knows that cars have alarms these days and a sticker isn’t a deterrent. For an extra line of defence, get an immobiliser if your car doesn’t already have one. These can cost as little as 80, and they’re much better than just a loud noise for making sure thieves don’t make off with your car. Wheel locks can cost just 30, and they’re a great cause of difficulty for a would-be car criminal too.

For opportunist crime, such as smash and grab, there are lots of features you can put inside a vehicle to prevent thieves from making an easy snatch. Vehicle safes are a good idea, and these can be especially handy for haulage vehicles with important shipment papers to protect. Also, you can buy cheap reinforcement appliances for number plates, and temporary fuel caps should the worst happen, all for around 5, so not every measure means seriously forking out.

If you’ve got the cash, and you really don’t want anyone taking your personal means of conveyance away from you, invest 600 in a tracker. The advanced GPS systems these days are small and hard to counter and they will lead police right to your vehicle, however far it’s been taken.

Some defences are simple and cheap, others are cutting edge, but the general message with all of this is that protection methods are a very good idea.